This invention relates to forming concrete deck coping at the edge of a swimming pool. More particularly, this invention relates to steps in constructing a pool liner using a coping form board.
Swimming pools now being constructed typically have a concrete or other set composition deck formed around the perimetrical edges of their mouths.
The present standard practice to construct the same is to complete a bounding structure around the pool mouth, i.e., one which provides a stable, generally vertical surface adjoining a generally horizontal surface, temporarily mount a set of semi-rigid form boards to the vertical surface so that they project upward above the horizontal surface by the desired thickness of the coping, pour and finish the coping on the horizontal surface behind the form boards, and, after the material of the coping has set to a satisfactory extent, strip the form boards to expose the perimetrically inner edge of the coping.
Most usually, the inner face of the form boards, above the level of the aforesaid generally horizontal surface of the bounding structure, is concavely profiled so as to mold a corresponding convex profile on the perimetrically inner edge of the coping.
It has become conventional to construct the form boards of polystyrene foam extrusions of convenient lengths, e.g., each eight feet long, and to secure the lower, inner generally vertical faces of these to the aforesaid vertical surface of the bounding structure, end to end, using a plurality, e.g., two, vertically spaced longitudinally extending strips of double-sided adhesive tape. Between these strips it has become common to cut or otherwise form a kerf in each form board, so that the tape-bearing basal portions have become called "feet". For convenience, the form boards generally are supplied with the double-sided adhesive tape already located on the feet, but protected by plasticized paper backing strips which are pulled off and discarded immediately prior to mounting of the form boards.
It has been commonly experienced that the double-sided adhesive tape by itself insufficiently mounts the form boards to the bounding structure. All too likely is the possibility that while the cement or the like is still very fluid after a pour, poor adhesion somewhere around the pool mouth, e.g., because there was an oil film on some of the bounding structure, will result in premature separation of the form boards from the bounding structure. Accordingly, it has become usual to provide a secondary securement system. These generally have in common that after the pour has set, they are disconnected off intermediate their lengths or otherwise to disconnect them from the bounding structure so that as the form boards are removed little or nothing remains visible as artifacts of their having been used.
At present, the principal, subsurface water-container basins of swimming pools typically are of two distinct types. According to one type, the pit which has been dug is lined with reinforcing material such as steel mesh and then sprayed with concrete, e.g., using a Gunite process to form a reinforced concrete shell. According to the other principal type, the aforesaid bounding structure of the pool is provided with a perimetrically-extending, inwardly-opening channel or groove. A water-impervious, flexible liner of synthetic plastic sheet material is spread across the floor and up the sidewall of the pit and its outer, upper perimetrical edge, which is integrally formed with an enlarged bead, is stuffed or slid and locked into the aforementioned groove.
The process of the present invention was developed principally for use in constructing swimming pools of the second-mentioned principal type, i.e., so-called liner pools, although it is conceivable the process could be used with or without some modification in the construction of pools of other than this type.
Heretofore in the construction of liner pools using the ways and means which have so far been described, it has been difficult to secure the form boards at a uniform height about the perimeter of the bounding structure, to provide a satisfactory secondary securement system, and, after the form boards have been removed, to ready the channel for receipt of the outer, upper perimetrical bead of the pool liner. As to the latter, it has been difficult or impossible, given the other design constraints, to keep wet concrete from flowing into the channel during formation of the deck, so that cleaning the channel of a substantial amount of at least partially set concrete has been a troublesome but necessary task.